Is Tomorrow Hitler's? 200 Questions on the Battle of MankindKnickerbocker, H. R. (Hubert Renfro)
History
Is Tomorrow Hitler's? 200 Questions on the Battle of Mankind
Knickerbocker, H. R. (Hubert Renfro)
Europe -- Politics and government -- 1918-1945; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945 -- United States
One day in 1931, more than a year before Hitler came to power, Korff
came before his board of directors and said, “Gentlemen, I’m through.
I am going to resign. I wish you to release me and to make your
arrangements accordingly.” Astounded, the board asked why. “Because
I’ve read the book, gentlemen,” replied Korff. “What book?” they asked.
“_Mein Kampf_,” Korff said, and began to explain, but couldn’t on
account of the laughter. Dear old Korff had to have his joke. But no,
it was not a joke. Korff resigned, liquidated his property, got out
of Germany and in 1933 when Hitler came to power the Nazis bought out
Ullstein’s at forced sale.
The laughing members of the board and stockholders--those not yet dead,
shot attempting to escape, or hanged by their belts in concentration
camp--received a fraction of one per cent of the value of their
holding. Of all the house of Ullstein, only the man who read the book
escaped. I advise you to read the book.
As an orator, Hitler has many superiors. I have mentioned Goebbels in
Germany. Trotzky was certainly better. I heard Trotzky speak in Moscow
the last time he ever appeared on a Russian platform. It was in 1926.
He had been in disgrace for more than a year, but was allowed to speak
on the innocuous theme, “The United Sates of America and Siberia,” a
lecture with paid admissions. The proceeds were to go to the benefit
of needy students of Moscow University. Why Stalin allowed it I do
not know, but he never permitted a return engagement, for Trotzky’s
popularity proved so great that the mounted police had to be called
out to move the crowds which, despite the exorbitant admission price,
jammed the street before the lecture hall.
I paid thirty roubles for a balcony seat. It was worth the price.
Trotzky appeared, dapper in a light-gray whipcord suit, and for an hour
and a half in Russian which I only faintly understood, moved me and the
three thousand other listeners to intense appreciation of his forensic
talents. I was surprised to hear Trotzky’s voice, a clear high tenor.
I had expected a deeper, more rotund tone. They said, however, that
the clarity of his delivery and its carrying power were such that he
alone among Bolshevik orators could speak in the Red Square and without
a microphone be heard by half a million listeners. Without being able
to understand more than one word in ten, as at that time I had been
in Russia less than a year, I was nevertheless convinced by this one
hearing of Trotzky that he was one of history’s greatest orators.
Q. _What sort of eyes has Hitler? Are they magnetic? What color are
they?_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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